For Sale

I've begun to sell a bit of my collection on Discogs. Mostly stuff that I have already shared. You can see what I've listed so far here:

http://www.discogs.com/seller/blackratsflood

V/A - ○△□ LP (Pafe, 1981)

Side A

Pale Cocoon - おーちゃくの予習 ～ Physician Of The Hospital

Pale Cocoon - パラドックス

Virgin-Mayonnaise - 瞬間の接続

Virgin-Mayonnaise - ショーウィンドウの地平線

V-Packs - フルーツ・パーラー

Green Kikaku - 天国ストリップ

Green Kikaku - 異端派・エセ・ウノンテ

Green Kikaku - ジェラシー

Side B

Shokkaku Shounen - 登校行進曲

Shokkaku Shounen - 星空のしゃぼん玉

Shokkaku Shounen - 映画少年

Curriculum Machine - Mogura

Curriculum Machine - Ringo 追分

Funx -  伊号24番

Funx - 伊号32番 

Funx - 呂号9番

Here's the first LP from the beloved Pafe label, home of SD favorites Pale Cocoon and Funeral Party. Pale Cocoon provide, rather unsurprisingly, the best tracks, but the whole comp is worth checking out if only for the complete obscurity of the other bands. Besides Pale Cocoon, Funx is the only band to have (to my knowledge) released another record.

A few notes: I've translated all of the band names into English, although they don't all appear that way on the liner notes. Many of the names are transliterations of English anyway, so it's a bit strange that they weren't translated in the first place. Also, separating the tracks on the b-side was very confusing. The liner notes list three Shokkaku Shounen songs, but it sounds like there are far more than that. I've separated them here based on the length of the silences between them. 

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Chance Operation - Spare Beauty 2x7" (Jeep / Telegraph, 1982)

Side Track

Be Stopped Up

Side Winder

Erua Ela

Side Kick

Dummy Shout

Side Splash

Touch & Go

While I'm at it, here's CO's subsequent release. Here they develop their sound by adding drum machines and sax. The guitar and bass are more boingy, more wiggly.

More Chance Operation on the way when I figure out which moving box their "Place Kick" LP is hiding in.

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Chance Operation - s/t 12" EP (Jeep / Telegraph, 1981)

Side A

Winecolor Sick

Image Dance

Side B

57 Compute

Din

Limiter Shuffle

There is no overestimating the influence of the original New York No-Wave scene on the Japanese post-punk underground. Groups like Friction and Plastics served as ambassadors between metropolises, and Japanese publications like Rock Magazine devoted many pages to the NYC scene. Chance Operation rank among the best Japanese No-Wave groups. Here's their first indie label EP following the self-released flexi demo I posted earlier. Enjoy!

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V/A - Soft Selection 84 LP (Soft, 1983)

Side A

clä-sick - Morning in China

La Sellrose Can Can - Aerobicise

Linolium - Unit 25

Picky Picnic - Sume ba Miyako

Pink Label - Good Luck

NAME - N.H.K.

Picky Picnic - Kibo no Asu

ReveR - Performan

Side B

NAME - Do We All Need Love

Classic Pearl - Pearl

La Sellrose Can Can - Happy Morning

clä-sick - Every Night

clä-sick - Black Nile

The rarity of this LP, released on the mysterious Soft label, is matched only by its astounding quality. Each song is a wonderful little nugget of minimal-wave, beginning with clä-sick's lilting Chinoiserie intro "Morning in China". La Sellrose Can Can kicks things up a notch with a bouncy minimal-synth-pop number featuring oddball English lyrics about physical training.

Everyone do a flying saucer

Take the train and say hello.

Linolium's sole contribution is another Chinese-themed minimal-synth jam (what are the odds?), though this time with a sort of Picky Picnic-esque canned-sample technique going on over a snappy drum machine rhythm. The picnickers themselves take up the torch here with a demo version of Ha! Ha! Tarachine's "Sume ba Miyako", featuring all the squiggly, brain-damaged zolo we've all come to expect from these masterminds. The mood shifts for Pink Label's track "Good Luck", a sparsely-produced techno-kayo gem with a lovely chorus. Things take a slightly darker turn with NAME's "N.H.K.", a very weird little track with vocal samples in English and Japanese. The coda "play it backwards again" appears before Picky Picnic show back up with another goofball ballad, this time with a ukelele, syncopated hand claps and more frustrated grunting (I don't think this track was released elsewhere, but I might be wrong). Another very weird minimal song courtesy of ReveR, featuring a lot of wacky, reverb-y voices speaking English(?). Really dumb/great.
Side two kicks off with another NAME track, this time more pop-like with moody vocals about exhaustion with love.

Sometimes I feel so tired

Every time you make me saying 'I love you'

Sometime I feel so sad

Every time you stop me making love with you

Do we all need love?

And do I really know how to love you?

Following "Do We All Need Love?" is "Pearl", by Classic Pearl, which I first heard long ago on a CD compilation. It's very excellent and quite catchy. Then La Sellrose Can Can is back with another super fun English-language pop song whose lyrics I can't quite decipher. Something about candy and mercy and merry-go-rounds? Anyways, album-openers clä-sick return, book-ending Soft Selection 84 with another moody minimal synth tune ("Every Night") and the twinkling, dub-tinged "Black Nile".
The only thing not-great about this LP is how obscure every band besides Picky Picnic is. Does anyone have any info about these groups?

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Klara Circus - Angel Orphan / Boku No Katamuki 7" flexi (Nagomu, 1987)

Side A

Angel Orphan

Side B
Boku no Katamuki

As promised, here's some more from the Nagomu label. This is is more along the off-kilter twee folk naïvete axis of Nagomu groups.

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Mamoru Fujieda - Radiated Falling 7" flexi (Marquee Moon, 1982)

Fujieda is a post-minimalist composer who studied under Morton Feldman. Radiated Falling, perhaps his most well-known piece, is an electronically manipulated recording of one of Fujieda's piano-based works.

This concludes the Marquee Moon flexi series. Hope you enjoyed them!

Download.

Aquapolis - Eldorado 7" flexi (Marquee Moon, 1982)

Instrumental prog jams. I don't even know if this band is Japanese. Completely obscure.

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Heiner Goebbels & Alfred Harth - I Don't Bend, I Never Turn Round 7" flexi (Marquee Moon, 1982)

Really fantastic track here from forward-thinking improv duo Goebbels & Harth that I don't think appeared on any of their albums (feel free to correct me). Wonderfully wobbly and off balance from the start, just gets better as it goes along.

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Sema - S. Minor Ghosts 7" flexi (Marquee Moon, 1982)

Dark experimental composition from Robert Haigh in his Sema days. I believe this track comes from his Theme From Hunger LP, and the actual title is S.S. Minor Ghosts. Though not Japanese music, this seems to be the most collectible of the Marquee Moon flexis.

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NON baNd - s/t 10" (Telegraph, 1982)

Side A

Duncan Dancin'
Ghetto
Wild Child (Can't Stand It)

Side B
Solar
Dance Song
あわのうた~Bap Pang

Fun and funky new-wave/no-wave duo. They're still around if I'm not mistaken!

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Takami - ー天使行ーY. De Noir Ⅱ LP (LLE, 1983)

Side A

最后の夢
イノセント
雨あがりの街（わたしは手に鈴をもって）

Side B
現身のエーリス
あなただけの・・・・そして,わたしだけの
天使行　Ⅱ
夕暮れ

Super zonked out and mind-warping expedition from the duo of cosmic chanteuse Takami and post-kosmische explorer Pneuma. Pretty wild stuff, with some of the longer tracks consisting solely of Takami's baleful moans. Other bits sound sort of Nico-ish and medieval.

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P.T.A's - Young Vernacular 10" (Cragale, 1984)

Side A

Takin' My Vice

Side B
To and Fro
Obsession

Here's P.T.A's 3rd release on Cragale. Far more similar to the mid-80's new-wave rock sound on Tiger / Fukumen Toshi than the brittle krautpunk of their first 7", but still pretty fun.
I promised I'd post this for a reader... ages ago! Hope it's everything you dreamed.

Download.

Pale Cocoon - 繭 cassette + Toy Box flexi (Pafe, 1984)

Side A

Sora
Shunmin
Musoukyoku
Mizutamari
Onshitsu
Kumoatsume

Side B
Toy Box
Laboratory Under the Blue Sky
Room=Manhole
Automatic Doll
Microscorp
FLALORM

I'm extremely pleased to share with you the one and only full length by ultra-cult Stalking Duppi maximum seal of approval group PALE COCOON! This tape follows the Secret Sounds 10" pretty closely in sound, in fact a few of these songs are alternate versions of those tunes. Dark dream-pop oscillating between eerie and elated... and constantly defying comparison.

Download.

Also available for download now is the flyer/flexi that accompanied the 黄金時代 picture 7" that I poster earlier. The song is an alternate version (my favorite version!) of Toy Box, different from that which appears on the 繭 tape.

Download.

bonus video time!

Both of today's downloads were contributed by loyal readers. You know who you are... thanks a bunch!

Various Artists - "Green Tape" cassette (Caligari, 198?)

Side A
Shimizu Akemi - Kakera
Takahiro Yamazaki - (untitled)
Isan Sozokunin - Seiji-e
Tolcaderro - (untitled)

Side B
Kumio Kurachi - 5ji No Siren
Yoshiyuki Sugawa - Sugar Wire Flesh
UMO - Rocking Horse
40318 - Lapse

Fantastically odd little tape here on the ultra-obscure Caligari cassette label.
Kakera, by Shimizu Akemi, would fit right in on the Vanity Music box set... sounds a bit like Tolerance. Takahiro Yamazaki's track sounds like casio drums being played with a TV in the background. Isan Sozokunin (who are also on the Paris Tokyo cassette) play a little stumbling punk song. Tolcaderro (who are on Red Tape, a Swiss cassette released in conjunction with Caligari) play a harmonica and broken machine duet. Kumio Kurachi's track is a real stand out, sounding also very Vanity-esque. This might be the same Kumio Kurachi that appears on the Lost Vow CD compilation. Sugar Wire Flesh... where to begin? This is probably the most brain-damaged track I have on any album. Without beans?? UMO follows up with a pleasant piano number before the tape is ended with a nice industrial noise track from international tape scene contributor 40318.
Quite possibly the most baffling and obscure item in my collection. Enjoy!!

Download.

Mariah - うたかたの日々 2x12" (Better Days, 1983)

Side A

そこから...
視線

Side B
花が咲いたら

Side C
不自由な鼠
空に舞うまぼろし

Side D
心臓の扉
少年

This is a perfect record for the start of summer. Mariah was the brainchild of Yasuaki Shimizu, whose confounding IQ-179 LP I posted earlier. While that album was very much in the schizophrenic vein of Wha-Ha-Ha, the Mariah stuff is more pop-progish and palatable. I've actually seen them compared to Toto... which, to my chagrin, I can actually kinda understand. Rich, warm, percussive... kinda pseudo-African at some times, in a kinda Byrne & Eno sense. Lyrics sung in Japanese and Armenian (!), which makes for a pretty cool lyric book. An absolutely wonderful record from beginning to end... highly recommended!!

Download.

Metro Farce - Barizanveaux LP (Kitchen, 1983)

Side A

密室で眠れ
mon dieu Mongolian
漂白都市
Wizard In My Pocket
梟たちの夜

Side B
なしくずしオペラ
Pendulum
Hospital
蒼い残り火

Here's an album that has drawn some online curiosity, if only for the fact that it was released on the same label as Variété and MLD. Kitchen also released the previously posted Voice 10", which this is far closer to in sound. Fun and often silly new-wave in the same territory as Hikashu, P-Model and Uchouten, probably most recommendable to fans of Nagomu Records material.

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extremely goofy bonus video!

Commune - Will/I Can't Believe 7" (Autonomy, 1979)

Side A
Will

Side B
I Can't Believe

Skritch-scratchy post-punk trio from Osaka, 2 members of which would later form Aunt Sally with vocalist Phew. Pretty fun single with punk-funk rhythms and constipated vocals (thanks to nattliga_toner for that apt description).

Download.

+Alpha - s/t 7" (self-released, 198?)

Plunky, bass-heavy post-punky stuff from this rather mysterious group. It's becoming interesting to me just how "default" this sorta sound seems to have been in Japan in the early 80s. Did Japan have the highest concentration of bands with groovy basslines and constantly discordant guitar in the world? The almost punkish and sing-songy vocals set this one apart from the pack, and track 2 features the return of crazy vocal modulation!

Download.

Libido - 低く飛んでゆく 7" (LLE, 1986)

I can really only assume that this is the same group that recorded the fantastic song Motionless, as this 7", recorded some 6 years later, bears extremely little resemblance to the frostbitten darkwave present on their split with Pneuma. This sounds more like... ? My overwhelming ignorance of late 80's rock music leaves me without a comparison, positive or negative. Readers?

Download.

Geil - I'm 7" (Taiyo, 1986)

Strangely (for me at least) quite enjoyable goth-rock with androgynous vocals (courtesy of "Alice") that remind me of a drunk woman named Stephanie that used to come in my shop and tell me about all her Sex Pistols posters. This, coupled with the fact that Stay sounds like what I've always thought pretend-English would sound like, makes for a fun listen. Oh, and what kind of title is I'm??

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sh - 深き森から 7" (Zero, 1983)

Very strange and haunting 7" from the quite reliable Zero label. This may be the first appearance of Kumiko Suyama, whose songs on international compilations such as SNX and Assemblée Générale 5 have piqued the interests of a few blog-dwellers. Save for the piano on side b, this 7" is somewhat far removed from her other work, which, while not 'upbeat' per se, is typically more folksy and pastoral. The dark, icy atmosphere and Phew-like incantations may be explained by liner notes: "Inspired by John Duncan".

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Quasimode - 真昼 [Jeux De Vertige] LP (Di-Stance, 1986)

Brilliant avant-chamber stumble and stomp from this mysterious group. A fascinating album that seems to combine the cosmic whisper of Takami's Tenshi-Kou and the decadent europhilia of Kumiko Suyama and Sonoko, resulting in a creepy and markedly Duppi-like brew. Fitting, considering that the two were compilation-mates on Yuzuru Agi's notoriously unobtainable Ego 02 / Critical Species - Individual Music Osaka 1985 cassette.

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Sodom - Material Flower 12" (Trans, 1986)

By request, here is Sodom's Material Flower single.
I can't say I'm a particularly big fan of this group after TV Murder, but Art of Lab (Night Version) has some really great vocals.

Download.

Panasist - Hoshizora No Panasist / Dummy Robot 7" (Epic, 1980)

Indefatigable electro-doink-pop with heavy Famicom vibes. Very high in my personal canon.

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Room - Promotion Disk 7" flexi (Room, 1984)

Side A
[untitled]

Wonderfully odd and extremely obscure lil' 1-sided flexi gem. Sorta dark new-wave with female vocals, rhythm box and a very weird chorus that reminds me of Lizzi Bougatsos from Gang Gang Dance. Check it out and tell me if I'm crazy or not.
I'd love more information about this group. Did they release anything else?

Download.

Chance Operation - Demo. Seat 7" flexi (self-released, 1980)

Side A
カスパ-.ハウザ-.ナウ

Side B
Receivin'

The very first Chance Operation record! Very simplistic and repetitive, even more stripped down than their later 12"s. Would possibly pair nicely with the P.T.A's New Songs 7".

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He Was - s/t 7" flexi (Kageroh, 1983)

By request, here's the sole known release from this mysterious tribal drone outfit. Released on Kageroh records (Viola Renea, Portray Heads, etc).

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Taiji - Endress World. Coincidence. Evanesce. 7" flexi (胎内レーベル, 1985)

Side A
Endress World
Coincidence
Evanesce

Killer one-sided flexi with three brief industrial-noise pieces. Released on the same label as Himegozen, and somewhat similar to some Sympathy Nervous stuff or the Gurdjieff 7" I posted a while back. Really nice... I hope to get some of their cassettes eventually.

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Noise - 天皇 LP (ALM, 1980)

Side A

死 (Der Tod)
水 (Wasser)

Side B
地球は青い (Die Erde Ist Blau)
天皇 (Tenno)
羊 (Schaf)

Legandary first recording of Tori and Reiko Kudo of Maher Shalal Hash Baz fame. The off-kilter methodology and stumbling attitude is still present, but here it's drenched in an abrasive and tape-hissy miasma. Somewhere between Suicide and Nico?

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C. Memi - Heavenly Peace (Fairy Records, 1982)

"Heavenly Peace" is the whimsical sophomore release of C. Memi. Following her shared debut with Neo Matisse (described as "that famous 'No Chocolate'-single" in "The Hijokaidan story"), we are presented with five pretty darn disparate tracks held together by some kind of magical antimatter.

Opening track "Ishin-Denshin" is perhaps the weirdest of the bunch. The ticking of a drum machine coupled with somewhat ham-fisted post-punk/DIY style drumming forms the foundation of the song; sounding at least slightly reminiscent of a cat coughing up a hairball. Add a reverb-soaked flute playing a hazy melody through a fairytale forest and astonishingly dry and unemotional vocals and this stew of singular confusion is complete.

Two transitional tracks follow - "C'est un Chanson" is a chanson-ey (who whould've guessed?) and unfortunately pretty snooze-worthy affair. The cute piano and music box bagatelle "For Monster of Dr. Frankenstein" fares better, though perhaps mainly because of its brevity.

The weirdness resumes with the jingle-like "Hitokichi". Sounding like a commercial for an extraterrestial soda or something, "Hitokichi" is a strange melange of ultra-processed vocals, droning basswork and white noise drum snares.

Memi leaves us with the magnificent title track and it's soothening swathes of synth pads punctuated by sparkles of cosmic sound-shrapnel. A perfectly serene way to close off the EP, with just a slight sentimental touch. Real nice.

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Dendö Marionette - s/t 7" flexi (QP., 1981)

Legendary (and legendarily expensive) only release from über-cult group Dendö Marionette. I gotta say... this deserves the hype. Frozen・Edge reminds me of Red Exposure-era Chrome + Cabaret Voltaire at their fiercest - a cyber-punk anthem replete with electroid guitar solos and blurred vocals. Conciousness is comparable the sub-zero crawl of house favorite Motionless by Libido, and the incredibly woozy Walts (For Lautréament) starts off like a collaboration between The Gurdjieff and Taiji before settling down in ultra-dark industrial synth-pop territory. Amazing!

This rip was contributed (but not made) by bX-59cppw, who just recently upped the C.Memi + Neo Matisse 7" on his blog, which needs to be heard by everyone who follows Stalking Duppi!

Download.

Re-ups

Posts are hidden until the links are back up. Working backwards in random order, might post some rips from other sources in the meantime.

Popsong's Factory - My Pops / D'Ameja 7" (Pillbox, 1981)

Flawless minimal/electro-wave jam with brilliant vocoder usage. Absolutely one of the very best 7"s of the Japanese underground!

Download.